Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

 

 

 

 

 

uhhh... right. Time to go back.

Rhyme Time!

Poetry O' Me Own

 

 

.

            

Pebbles for a Pentecostal Church Mouse

 

Charity

Was a church mouse

Her home was a hole in the wall.

 

Sunday mornings

Were quite the spectacle

As she peeked through cracks

In thousand years old

Stucco…

 

Where in wonder,

People raised hands

Struggling against the Fall.

 

Charity

Was confused:

Was that oriental discipline

Or did they hold aloft

Their god?

 

Tiny and scorned

Charity squeaked and lived

And to hers

It was good and

Wholly holy.

 

Truly enough
(For a stoning).

 

 

 

.

we are in love

Introspection.

When we're dancing
We are most alive,
Pushing through the ring
Of clapping folk
Willing to break the mold.

When we're dancing
We're laughing
Looking pretty
Breaking a spat of
Tasty groovin'.

It's toothsome and well,
Ephemerally
Gladhandingly

Nice.  We know how
To have fun
Earnestly and like strobes,
Imploringly.

We are thinkers
And we've come to
Grind
The heavy yolk
That holds them down.

Introspection is a plumb
Line.  Plumb tuckered
When we're dancing cheek to cheek
In my tux,
In your gown.

 

 

 

.

lax

I'm asking permission
To take your hand
For a sip-slap conversation.

There,
The window seat is
An offering for view -
You'll see baggage passing
Calloused palms
Piled high on rusty bed
After bed.

Damaged goods transfer
At Grand Central
Where they're inspected for
Scratches and scuff
Marks and
Ownership.

They're snaking through the terminal.

They'll tumble down the chute
Onto an ogling line but
Some pass more hands than others.

They're blurred alike but only one is mine.
How many are yours.

Regardless and so,
We'll have a sip
Or I'll take over
Where they left it.

 

 

.

                                    

         Most Days

 

       Some days, he sits, smiles and stares

       The world to oblivion, and life not a care.

 

       Some days, he fidgets, frenzied and foolish

       World chasing and biting, monstrous and ghoulish.

 

       Other days, he feels deep and profound

       Heavenbound.

 

       Once in awhile, he’s just angry and tired

       The world is criminals, enemies, liars.

 

       Every day, he is criminal, enemy and liar

       A burning tyrant, nero, fire.

 

 

 

.

              

How You See Things

 

You are in the dark corner of the world

Where cobwebs grow thick and memories

Grow thicker.

 

You are in a bowl where fish swim or

Rather float.

 

You are cracked in places, creeping like veins

Over your brain and even deeper places

Spilling kith and kin.

 

But life is more than you think.

 

For every hundredth break and misshapen hand,

A child is born in a manger.

For every lamentation, a song.

But people are caught in frozen moments of jocularity

Long seconds of hilarity -

Living moments of clarity. 

       

    It’s perpetual,

    If you let it be.

 

People are sincere if you’ll let them be.

Sometimes

Smiles are smiles

Laughter is laughter.

 

Catch it and cup it in your hands

Colors flying like the smile that broke

Across dry land or
Noah’s grizzled face.

                     

 

 

 

.

              

rubbernecking or a fun story to tell

 

Life is simply a hard sprint

Through the traffic

Of swinging fists and

Pummeling profanity

Or pornography blatant

Like cars honking in

Gridlock.

 

People slam horns, whistle

And point digits

Driving slowly through

Bottlenecked boulevards where

Someone sits dying or

Weeping or

Wondering or

Sleeping ignorant

Slumped on a wheel.

 

That’s life.

 

Or is it more

Like an apple pie? 

  A slice of Americana

  And a vision in the sky:

  That sustains you

  And exhumes you

  Prophets raging and

  Telling you

  That your time was

  Wasted.

 

Turn up the radio and

Sing:  La-di-dah.

 

                   

 

 

 

.

Weathered Pews

 

A tenuous beast of disparate voices

Lifting songs of the abstract

And long off –

A way’s away.

 

From number crunchers swallowed

By ledgers and firm formulae.

 

Chalkboard pedagogy, red pens

Marking come and go

Mapping the future per diem.

 

Vaudeville dappers with their

Silk Road cravats,

Sealing the deal last week.

 

To candy stripers slaving away

Wiping wounds, ogled by

Sickly men.

 

They come with the learned sway of

Reeds that bend and

Quite the contrary,

Sometimes break.

 

Their voices rising, thoughts everywhere

Floating or waiting

For the Beautiful Bludgeon to

Bludgeon, bludgeon, bludgeon

Bludgeon, bludgeon

Beautifully.

         

 

 

.

              

the mark of hands

You’ve tumbled from womb
Hung by a cord
Floating above
A murky mess
Of paradigms.

And so you’ll cry
All your life,
Wondering why you left it.

A tiny fist
Clenched with vigor
Shaking frustrations
At a shiny, brave world.

Or maybe it’s celebration
(Albeit confused)
Like swinging a mug
For auld lang syne.
             

 

 

 

.

                                    

                Crosswalk, Wilshire and Union

 

            Strange how a pin dropped in a cave

            Reverberates until you hear it

            And even see it

                And fear it.

 

            I’m carrying two bags

            Made of plastic.

 

            In one bag, my left hand

            Contains a carton of milk, sweet from the cow

            A carton of juice, plucked from the tree

            A bag of granola, a habit from youth.

 

            In my right hand, the other

            Full of bread to live on

            Sugar to dwell on

            Cereal to chew on during

            Tired mornings

            When I have no place to go.

 

            I’m just swimming in crap

            And I can point my fingers

            Call it sunshine

            Hope it sprouts sunbeams

            But it’s still stinkin’ up this

            Lifetime (and then some).

 

            Late night TV screeches

            A loud black and white

            And I’m happy tonight
            Relatively.

 

                That's his

                Damn Story.

 

 

.

At the Frontal Lobes Cafe

 

Curtain flutters and you feel a draft.

 

Everything matters to you

But doesn’t matter at all

But you’re scrambling around

As if today is the day

It all happens.

 

But nothing is going to happen

Because that’s

How things work

Even though

Nothing works

So I’ve got a good feeling.

 

 The door was left open

 In came the cold.

 The iceman was frozen

 And he -

        He was old.

 

Curtain flutters and you feel adrift.

 

.

Best Western Lobby

Sauntering through the Cabana

The party in fully rosy swing

Einstein and Hepburn are laughing

Gandhi, Mandela, they sing

 

Acquaintance is auld and forgotten

Oppenheimer juggles a bomb!

Alfred Nobel waiting patiently

His reward is a dance to this song.

 

Limelight on stage, Marilyn whispers

Sultry: a World is progressing

Thesis, antithesis, synthesis, new

Innovation and violence undressing

 

Atlas, he strains, globe shifting

Cubism blends our worldviews

Nouns in the bag, looking for light

We're boarding the Ark, two by two.

 

             

 

.

Daisy Fay's Green Haze

 

We’re nothing but beasts of burden

Like Janos’ donkey*

He thinks.

 

Some go up

Some go down

The world is Escher

Tumbling every which way

On stairs.

 

But

It’s a happy time for

This jumpy speakeasy

Where we’ll drink giggle water

And watch the dancing flappers

Laugh on laps

Like they must’ve

For Gatsby.

 

We’ll be old and grey

Wearing our old and green

Laurels and garlands

  Pumping our fists

  Dropping our canes

  Watching the moon

      Wane over the sunset

      Three sixty and five.

 

             

 

 

.

mazel tov

 

I would like to dance with you

A slow affectionate waltz

Played by a big band

Of angels

Cheered by our hope.

 

I would like to hold you

Near me

When I’m blue.

 

My first kiss was with

Hope

And a better tomorrow

Light refracting and twisting

Off gutter puddles.

A mole digging a hole

Climbing

A mound upside-down.

 

That’s where you wait.

 

'Til we swim with the fishes

And five loaves of bread.

 

 

 

.

Well, What's Honest

 

He’s honest like fresh air but she’s taken aback.

He sees life in sweeping panoramas and

The sun is always shining someplace if not here.

He’ll stand like Moses on the mountaintop Nebo

But she’ll be sad because clouds are gathering

Somewhere.

How many see the Promised Land

For him, grand visions and she is there!

For her, seeds of doubt sprout

Stuck in the middle of

Nowhere.

 

             

 

 

 

Tuesday / Wednesday

 

I walked outside and breathed in the rain

Thinking of Meaning.

Breathing a sigh of something sweet

Yet bitter as all hell

Thinking of Meaning.

 

I stared at a City Sky

Clouded over with dark puffs

Of stuff waiting to happen,

Wanting to stand and rage where

Everyone is a bitter Old Man

Too tired of life as he cries for milk.

 

I stepped out the door and felt the morning damp

Thinking of Meaning

And a place to stand

Where everyone is buoyant, green

Trusting in Something

Rife with Meaning.

 

           The cynic is lifeless, broken in too

                        Many places where You

                        and I can still have Hope.

                 

 

.

              

Our Friend the Atom

 

Here’s proton: positive, you surmise

Full of spunk, empty of wise.

 

There sulks neutron, a nonplussed sort

Dead weight to the total, ballast for tort.

 

Fling away you electrons; you’re hurting my eyes

Tango around like quick why’s and lies.

 

Dancing elephants and falling buildings

You’re all the same thing, just tiny dots

Spinning.

 

Two nights ago, I had the pleasure of bumping into Atom, quite an event. 

Turns out he isn’t just one but three, an invisible trinity.

 

Heaven is when

They split. 

 

The atom came ready, carrying his head high

Soap to stand on and dreams to confide.

                    

 

 

   

.

We Dance on a Thin Edge

 

Hope is a dancer

Sultry as can be

You aren’t permitted a touch

But you can see

That she moves to a rhythm hidden.

 

Her name was Truth –

A horrible liar

Trapped in a yellow briar

And leaves us weeping.

 

Blow me a kiss of all time’s sand

I’ll soak it to spilling

And make some plans

For something worthwhile.

 

Destiny is pretty

She wears a cotton dress

Billowing simple

Like freckles.

 

Faith, you are a stopple

To a demijohn of foes

Poured out in ladling dregs

     Of woe.

 

Love is ever primping

The winking girl of Troy

But I’m ever thinking

      It’s a ploy.

 

          Feet above head

          Head above feet

                  And repeat.

 

                            

 

   Moment's Freedom

 

            Falling, tumbling

                Twisting with

                Contortions

 

            Through the clouds

                Blind and Ferocious

                Thoughts Wild and Slow

 

            Into pools of feeling and the Rumbling

            Being the rat-tat-tat of guns and the Mean.

 

                            

 

Tap Your Foot on a Crowded Place

 

Scooting my Vespa

A giggly Hepburn in tow.

 

Street urchin – searchin’

Little car – goin’ far

 

Have you ever squirmed yourself

Drenched in a dark pool of

Flip-flip sardines.

Oily muck – your briny

Luck

 

Drink a hot Mediterraneo day.

Your shirt sticks to your back so

        Peel it like an orange or a wet piece of

        Paper that lands on a tile

        Awhile

      

Waiting patiently for

Something to Change

Because clock fixation lasts

Only a few weeks or

A short season

Even.

 

                 

.

Swashbuckler’s Dream

 

I walked the plank last week, sabers rattling behind.

I am Errol Flynn sans tights.

I still have dreams.

 

Wait

Before you cynically sneer

Show me yours

And even then

 

I know what you’re thinking because that’s who I’d be

But for every ounce of being

That won’t agree

That swings its fists and

Rages against those sullen faces

In happy places.

 

Ever the dreamer and thinker. 

 

Sullen faces in happy places

A polemic launched by angry races

All stymied by the graces

 

Of beautiful living.

 

.

My Apologia

 

What’s your take on the

State of Humanity

While we’re all grappling

With the terms of We

When we’re just beasts

Inside slumbering Snores

Who don’t really give much

Damn 

My apologies

 

.

Mud

 

Enjoy the sun-baked Coolness of

Your politico-slop and postmod-muck

Flinging it around like it’s the

Greatest thing on earth

When all you’re doing is robbing

Hope

 

Those Marlboro fools

It’s Hollywood cool

To be cynical.

 

.

City: Traffic

 

Hope smoke floats

Just yea over our heads

Like Big City haze

But prettier

And according to

Most folk,

Good for us.

 

Shed tears gladly

Water gardens blooming

Prosperity in a world that

Would care

Less.

 

Groaning beasts sway

Under the horn

Of dawn that cracks

Whips with

Utmost concern.

 

Big dreams rising

Like skyscrapers

That touch the sky

And kiss the hand

Of God.

 

Love and feeling

Hate and despair

But don't be late.

 

Everything and

All at once.

 

.

Ninevah

 

It’s a body in there, somewhere

Floating to, fro, over

The inward workings of

A Beating Heart

Beating a rhythm through

The belly of Three

Ready and waiting

To throw you out

Of your Grinding hole

Daily as you lay

There eaten away

By the brine and dark

Deep dark below

Your thoughts of purpose

The ebb and flow

 

It’s a body on there, somewhere

Touched by the lapping water

Of a rising cell there

Where you once slept

Hidden and punished

For running away.

 

.

Thinking Gravity

Pretzel-legged lotus sits

Beneath a tree and breathes:

Waiting for the Enlightenment

Train to rumble by

With loads of red

Apples Newton.

 

If you pay

Attention and keep

Your senses rapt

You’re apt to catch one.

 

If I found one

I’d eat it in

(Negative)

Nine point eight two

Meters per second

Squared.

 

Which means we’re

Falling in

Perpetuity.

 

.

The Wise

Here’s a man ready to be glorified

For homespun, streetspun

Wisdom.

 

A gaunt face, lean with the Years

And eyes that stare deep

Scanning the restaurant

With knowing glances.

 

There is little to fidget, little to Grovel

Because I rest on weariness

And this steaming cup of Joe:

 

Steaming the Civil into my cracked hands

Drawing the Past into my nose

When I complained that it was bitter

But I drink this cup

And I see things.

 

 

.

          Obsequy

               They sang Balm of Gilead
               Not long after his passing

               At the behest of the Living

               Still enthralled by his

               Evanescent glow and

               Winsome smile that

               Only insisted on a

               Choral accompaniment.

 

               In waking days, he was

               Quick to smile and embrace

               His neighbor, a grown man

               Ever youthful somehow

               Drinking life in sudsy

               Draughts and laughter

 

               And perhaps he’d hear

               Their voices at Death’s dream

               High and pretty seem

               Like the seraphim

               That sustained him

                 Daily.

 

.

Hombre Waiting

 

You are a sombre hombre

Who sits dejected in an alley

Shadowed by your own volition

Poured throat through tequila

Into your piggy belly

That oinks for more

But you’re just tired

Of the haberdash

And mish-mash

The people-feature,

The Nomencreature,

The huddled mass of

Fingers (pointing) and cultures (dancing):

Stupefied by the idiocy

Of your and my

Expectations

 

.

With Considerable Difficulty

 

These are the pews

Where I used to sit

When I was a little boy

Full of wide-eyed wonder

Over stories of

Moses smiting a rock

      And there was water for all.

But he was punished for

One moment of

Frustration and

Even as a kid

I thought I would’ve

Done the same

So I was

Afraid of

God.

 

This the song

I used to sing with

So much passion

Excitement and

Even euphoria.

 

Remember the story

Of Jonah and how

He once fled

Like an ant that

Scampers beneath your

Fat thumb and

Sings glory

Glory on high

In ant

Speak

    Eventually.

 

It seems strange that

We’d apologize for

Not being

You.

 

Nobody has bolts

In their neck

Holding their head

In place but

We all wonder in

Milton Secret:

 

Did I solicit

Thee to bring

Me out of

        darkness.

 

 

.

Empty Streets Closed      

About the size of us:

It’s full of pin-striped suits

And Headline news mixed

With the riff-raff smell

Of rags and axle grease

And beanies for the winter

And a shopping cart to

Push your wares.  Soaked

With the drunkenness of

A wobbly twilight of

Booze and vermouth and

Scotch if you’re lucky

Maybe the smell of Chanel.

 

She’s a baglady pushing

Around a cart full of

Things she can’t

Sell or

Love.

 

With
Without

You still go alone.

 

.

Life Blossoms

 

The sun beat down on

A heart chapped

By wind and cold

Sometimes happy

Already old.

 

    Gloom blooms.

 

Still, wind on

Dunes blew

Nonsensically

Like the tunes

Of a didgeridoo

Singing to you.

 

    (Gloom dooms.)

 

And you rested

In the warm glow

Of snow

From heaven

That tickled your

Soul

And after

Made

Laughter.

 

    (We grope for hope.)

         

We all try to mask it

Beats in a basket.

Moments
Passing

   Crib to casket.

 

.

Good Friday

The signal turned green some

Time ago

So the people started

Their move toward

Dreams of bigger homes

More love and laughter

Than they had at

The moment

We all face when we’re

Dealing with the

Fall.

 

Today

Comes silent -

Hoarse whispers

Of hallelujah

For what's to come.

 

.

  curse the bread

  keep this on the downlow

  because you never know

  who might surmise to

  drop eaves on the backward

  tickings of grey

  no-matter

 

  richard cory was seen with

  a red-spilling head trickle

  but the papers are tricky;

  i saw him dancing with all

  the pretty ladies just last night

  just

  right

  but that could be ghost

  perhaps-matter

 

  and as he dropped libations

  with his wizened hands

  his face caught reflection

  looking forlorn

  just

  worn

 

    with all the Lookers winking

    because they know

    the papers are tricky.

 

.  

Life Blossoms

 

The sun beat down on

A heart chapped

By wind and cold

Sometimes happy

Already old.

 

    Gloom blooms.

 

Still, wind on

Dunes blew

Nonsensically

Like the tunes

Of a didgeridoo

Singing to you.

 

    (Gloom dooms.)

 

And you rested

In the warm glow

Of snow

From heaven

That tickled your

Soul

And after

Made

Laughter.

 

    (We grope for hope.)

         

We all try to mask it

Beats in a basket.

Moments
Passing

   Crib to casket.

 

.

 Adam Smith and the Wineskins

Take one down and pass it around
Here’s an economy for everyone: 

    Life is a dream, a cup spilling over

    Foaming like everyone’s lager

      You drink it for mirth

      You slurp it for worth

      You order a round for good measure.

 

    Send me a barrel

    I’ll roll down the aisle

    Wed to your sorrows of morrow;

    Roll me a ciggie

    I’ll puff til I’m dizzy

    Your gods and your pleasures to borrow.

 

    So pass it around and don’t be so greedy,

    The economy of life is so bullish!

    Push ever onward

    To climb ever higher

    There’s Icarus caught in the moment.

 

Perhaps I’m a beggar, Saunder Simpcoxe

Sporting a sign ever ready,

Ignoring the Maker

Digging for Change

Looking for hope to recycle.


I sign.

Will work for a miracle

Bum a roam to Siloam.

 

.

 

Faith

 

When I was young

  Faith was Matter-of-fact

  Like the hours-long rough-housing fun

  Of splashing in the summer pool

  When we used to throw ice at a swarm

  Of angry wasps – the water our laughing fortress.

 

Later, it was the caped hero mask

  That gave me purpose and footing

  On wooden beams, everything crumbling

  Around a sometimes secret identity.

 

Still, faith was worn like a letterman’s jacket

  Setting me apart, making me chosen

  (maybe I’d date the cheerleader too)

  Colors black and white in a world filmed grey.

  And I read the Good Book with gusto.

 

Now, faith is still here

  But different:

  It offers grey.

 

When I’m honest

I look and see

Doubt and regret

Like the weekend

Stubble that countenances me.

But I don’t dwell on it more than need be.

 

         And I say Grace for food

         And rest content under

         The sun that brights my face

         White like heaven and the

         Sound of children laughing.

 

 

.

Hope Weds a Moment of Clarity

 

Silk maps were issued in the

         Second World

                      War

              To guide men

              Scanning the horizon

              Though the skies

              Gave little

              Bearing or

                   Sometimes

                           Caring.

 

     Rob a bank

     Or go for broke and

     Make it

     Federal.

       There’s a lot

        In those

        Registers and

        I’ve got the keys

        To the Holiest of

                   Kingdoms.

 

    Heaven is an

    Unknown but I believe

    It is more than

    Something here

    After a hard

    Day at the office.

 

    But I itemize my

    Life and think

    I might live like

    A hog in the fat

    House.

 

    (cat in the mouse house?)

 

             The world - my miracle oyster,

             Blueberry pancakes,

             Sweet sausage and a slice

 

                                    Of dreams.

 

 

 

Copyright © 2003 DanielPlanet . All rights reserved.